>> pelley: tonight, it appears 13,000 americans received those tainted injections that can lead to meningitis. they're race to treat anyone infected with the killer disease. dr. jon lapook has the latest. sharyl attkisson on unanswered pleas for more security before the u.s. ambassador to libya was killed. >> i feel like we were being asked to play the piano with two fingers. >> pelley: the debate gives mitt romney a boost. we have new polling tonight that shows a change in the race. reports from jan crawford and nancy cordes. and jim axelrod with an executive who's found a formula for succeeding in a tough economy. it's another at-bat for "money ball." >> we essentially have to have players whose performance is better than what we're paying

them. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening, in ohio police are searching for victims of the meningitis outbreak. in tennessee, they're reaching out with a phone bank. today federal officials estimated 13,000 americans received steroid injections that may have been contaminated with a potentially lethal fung gas. 105 illnesses have been reported across nine states. eight people have died. the steroids were used to treat back pain and joint pain. those who received injections in their spinal columns are at risk for the brain and final infection known as meningitis. dr. jon lapook begins tonight with the state that has the largest number of cases. >> reporter: in tennessee, public health officials are searching to reach people injected with the contaminated vials. >> whether each and every vial

was contaminated is not known, but certainly now we have an increasing number of patients who are being reported as having this fungal meningitis. >> reporter: dr. william schaffner has been tracking the outbreak at the vanderbilt university hospital in nashville. the sooner they find the infected, the better the odds of recovery. symptoms include fever, headache stiff neck and confusion. 76 facilities in 23 states received the contaminated product which was shipped from the new england compounding center. injections may have started as early as may 21. the centers for disease control believes the majority will not get sick. dr. schaffner agrees. >> if there's a bit of a silver lining in this dark cloud it's that apparently the attack rate, the proportion of people actually developing an infection, is very small. it's really about 1% or less. >> the headaches were bad, very bad. >> reporter: robert russell's

wife janet has been fighting meningitis in an intensive care unit for a month shechlt developed a severe headache after getting an injection for chronic back pain. >> they started doing m.r.i.s and t scans and stuff like that and i don't think they really knew at that point. so probably a few days later before somebody said, hey, it's meningitis. >> reporter: the typical incubation period is one to four weeks but it's unclear how long patients who receive the steroid injections will need to wait before they're considered out of the woods. >> pelley: jon, dr. schaffner told you fewer than 1% are getting sick? why do some people get sick and others don't? i >> scott, first of all, we don't know what percentage of those nearly 18,000 vials of tainted steroid have the fungas, that's one factor. the other thing is we don't have experience in people who have normal immune systems. most people who get this fung gas are immunocompromised. aids or leukemia. it's possible if it's just injected locally the person's own immune system can takcare of it and it doesn't make its

way up the spinal column into the brain. >> pelley: jon, thanks very much. one of the men responsible for security for u.s. diplomats in libya says tonight he feared for their safety long before the attack last month on the consulate in benghazi. four americans were killed as you recall, including ambassador chris stevens. the military security officer will tell his story to congress on wednesday but tonight he sits down with sharyl attkisson. >> reporter: army green beret lieutenant colonel andrew wood first set foot in libya last february to lead an elite 16-man counterterrorism team. from the moment he arrived he says he saw chaos. >> shooting incidents that occurred, many instances involving the local security guard force we were training. constantly there was battles going on between militias, criminal activity and that became increasing danger as time went on as well.

>> reporter: wood met daily with ambassador christopher stevens to discuss security. that's stevens on the right and colonel wood on the left at a memorial day service in tripoli. was he concerned about security? >> he was. he was constantly concerned about the threats to not just himself but the entire staff there. >> reporter: was there what you saw as a visible security drawdown during the period of time you were in libya? >> yes. it began just shortly after i arrived. there was pressure to reduce the number of security people there. >> reporter: pressure from where >> higher headquarters at state department. >> reporter: over six months leading up to the attack on ambassador stevens wood says the security situation in libya deteriorated. there were 13 threats or attacks in tripoli and benghazi. wood says ambassador stevens and his staff made the case for tightened security in e-mails and diplomatic cables. but one by one lost three state department security teams, their

only airplane and eventually wood's squad, too. did ambassador stevens or a regional security officer fight losing another team? >> yes. >> reporter: do you feel like there was a disconnect between what you saw on the ground and what the state department folks in washington thought was going on in libya? >> there was certainly no disconnect in our transfer of information to them. they were getting the information on the situation on the ground. we sent it up through state department cables and i sent it up to the military side on the d.o.d. side so there was awareness of what the situation in libya was about. >> reporter: how did you get the word that your team would not be allowed to stay? >> we knew that was coming through the cables and draft cables going back and forth. the requests were being modified to say don't even request for d.o.d. support. >> the state department was telling the folks on the ground in libya "don't continue to ask for this help"? >> correct. >> reporter: wood says in his opinion some of the security teams would have been in

benghazi on september 11 to help the state department bodyguards if they've been allowed to remain in libya does part of you wonder if the security requests had been granted the deaths could have been avoided? >> yes, yes, i do. i think about that. i -- i spent a lot of time thinking about that. >> reporter: colonel woods says in special force he is normally operates in the shadows but says there was so much misinformation after ambassador stevens' death he felt he had relevant information to offer congressional investigators, scott, so he stepped forward. >> pelley: thank you, sharyl. margaret brennan is our state department correspondent, she's been talking to her sources today. margaret, what does the state department have to say about colonel wood's allegations? >> reporter: scott, the state department claims the withdrawal of a security support team from libya had no impact whatsoever on the total number of fully trained american security personnel in libya overall or benghazi specifically.

a quick reaction force was on stand by to deploy if needed and they arrived in benghazi on the night of the attack, though not until hours after the assault began. government sources point out lieutenant colonel wood was stationed in tripoli, he wasn't part of the assessment of security in benghazi. >> pelley: is the state department arguing, margaret that security was adequate in benghazi? >> well, they haven't finished their review. what we know is there were five diplomatic security agents present on the compound in benghazi on the night of the attack. three of them survived but they were injured. it still isn't clear how or why they became separated from the ambassador. and the state department is likely to be asked whether the u.s. should have stationed american personnel inside libya, a country in which the government doesn't have control of its own security. >> pelley: margaret, thank you. today mitt romney found himself in an unfamiliar place-- the lead. have a look.

in a pew research center poll last month romney trailed president obama by eight points, 51% to 43%. but a pew poll taken after the presidential debate last week shows him ahead now by four points, 49% to 45%. that's outside the margin of error. we have two reports tonight. first we're going to go to jan crawford with governor romney who focused on foreign policy today at an address at the virginia military institute. jan? >> reporter: scott, the overarching theme is that the president has no foreign policy strategy that he's remained passive and reactive. romney said he know it is president hopes for a safer and freer middle east but that hope is not a strategy. >> when we look at the middle east today with iran closer than ever to nuclear weapons capability, with the conflict in syria threatening to destabilize the region and violent extremist

on the march and with an others dead likely at the hands of al qaeda affiliates it's clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the president took office. >> reporter: in israel, romney said the relationship between president barack obama and prime minister benjamin netanyahu had suffered great strains which has emboldened mutual adversaries such as iran. he said the president stood silent when iranians marched against their regime and wasn't quick enough to impose sanctions something romney has advocated for five years. >> i will not hesitate to impose new sanctions on iran and will tighten the sanctions we currently have. >> reporter: in egypt, romney said he will include clear conditions on aid, though he was vague on what that meant saying only that he would pressure the institutions and maintain itsc peace treaty with israel. in syria, romney said the president has failed to lead and has been indifferent to the syrian's request for freedom and

he would do more to help the opposition against bashar al-assad. >> i'll work with our partners to identify and organize members of the opposition who share our values and then ensure that they obtain the arms they need to defeat assad's tanks and helicopters and fighter jets. >> reporter: romney also delivered his harshest assessment yet of the administration's evolving response to the attacks in libya. >> this latest assault can't be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting islam-- despite the administration's attempts to convince us of that for so long. no, as the administration has finally conceded, these attacks were the deliberate work of terrorists. they use violence to impose their dark ideology and others. >> reporter: romney has been critical of the way the president has handled libya, he supported humanitarian aid when the president advocated that but when the president last year called for qaddafi's ouster, scott, romney accused him of making ad hoc determinations and saying he didn't have a long-term strategy. >> pelley: as you might imagine, jan, the obama campaign has another view and white house

correspondent nancy cordes is joining us from keen, california with that tonight. nancy? >> reporter: scott, good evening those poll numbers you mentioned helped to explain why the obama campaign harshly criticized romney's speech today before he even delivered it saying that he failed the commander-in-chief test. it's part of an aggressive new approach to try to stem the damage from the president's debate performance. with the president in california for a mix of official business and fund-raisers the white house fired back at romney's claims that the president was weak on syria and iran. they said romney did not propose any steps today that president obama hadn't taken already. >> that's why the united states will do what we must to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. >> reporter: they pointed out romney's embrace of a middle east peace plan for two separate states with israel and palestine was at odds with what he told donors in that secretly taped

florida fund-raiser. >> reporter: obama campaign officials described romney's speech as an attempt at a foreign policy reboot after embarrassing missteps overseas this summer. they pointed to his visit to london where he questioned the u.k.'s olympic readiness and his visit to israel where he suggested palestinians lacked the economic drive of their israeli neighbors. president clinton's secretary of state, madeleine albright, told reporters on an obama campaign conference call that romney's speech was full of platitudes but no policies. >> there's an awful lot of rhetoric and things, but when you get to the specifics, you kind of don't get the sense that he knows exactly what tools to use and how to operate within an international setting and what the role of the united states is in the 21st century.

>> reporter: the obama campaign's reaction to this speech is part of a larger strategy to portray romney as opportunistic and dishonest. it all started right after that debate performance, scott. the old obama campaign might have made little mention of this speech. >> pelley: nancy, thanks. relief may be near for californians paying record high gas prices. there were record low temperatures in some parts of the nation. and it's the beginning of a new chapter in space when the "cbs evening news" continues.in a r j.d. power and associates has ranked quicken loans "highest in customer satisfaction in the nation." call or go to quickenloans.com to discover for yourself, why we're engineered to amaze. because it helps you keep doing what you love. no wonder it's america's #1 selling pain reliever.

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without raising my blood pressure. coricidin hbp. >> pelley: this is how bad it's gotten in california. to fill the gas tank there of the country's most popular car, the toyota camry, it would cost nearly $80. have a look. the average price of gas nationally tonight is $3.82 a gallon but in california it's a record $4.67. we asked bill whitaker to tell us where prices are headed. >> reporter: these days, california drivers are trying desperately to avoid the gas station, some wait too long because the price at the pump is painful. the average price for a gallon of unleaded soared more than 50 cents in a week. sam krikorian closed his pumps friday when the price to refill his tanks hit $50,000. $20,000 more than just the week before. when he closed, a gallon of gas cost his customers 66 cents more

than at the beginning of the week. >> the price went up five cents, eight cents, 12 cents. >> reporter: today he's back open. the price to fill his tanks dropped $7,000 over the weekend, which means he can lower the price at the pump. >> today went down another seven to eight cent which is is a good sign. >> reporter: the problem at california's pumps is classic supply-and-demand-- or lack of supply. a refinery fire in northern california, another shut down in southern california by a power outage cut the state's supply of gasoline by about 10%. now those refeignrys are coming back online and sunday governor jerry brown called for an early transition to the winter blend of gas refiners have stockpiled for cold months. it's more polluting, but it's more plentiful says energy analyst dave hackett. >> it will raise gasoline production upwards of 10%. so it's liked aing another refinery. >> reporter: he says the fever at the pump has been broken and

prices will fall soon. >> it will be lower tomorrow than it is today. wait it out because it's coming down. >> reporter: scott, history shows prices rarely fall as fast as they go up. they should be back where they were before the spike in about a month. >> pelley: warm and sunny there, bill, but a lot of the country is getting a preview of winter. early morning temperatures plunged into the 40s, 30s, even the 20s in some places. 181 cold-weather records have fallen since friday. this morning in dallas/fort worth the mercury dipped to 39. in abilene, texas, 34, and in oklahoma city 31. down right freezing. an experimental drug shows promise in the fight against alzehimer's disease. that's next. but after awhile even my girlfriend noticed a difference. [ male announcer ] rogaine is proven to help stop hair loss. and for 85% of guys, it regrew hair. save up to 42% now at rogaine.com.

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>> pelley: there's new research showing an experimental drug may slow the mental decline of some people with alzehimer's disease. tests show it can slow memory loss 34% in patients with mild alzheimer's. the results were announced today at a conference in boston, but more tests are needed before the drug can be approved. so far so good for america's first private space mission. the space x dragon capsule listed off last night from florida. the unmanned ship should reach the international space station by wednesday. it's carrying half a ton of supplies and experiments.

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>> pelley: to borrow a phrase from yogi berra, day sgra view all over again. jim axelrod tells us a baseball team made up of player nobody wanted is back in the playoffs. >> reporter: they are the poorest team in major league baseball with a roster stocked with rookies and low-paid veterans pulled off the junk heap. the oakland as were pegged to finish last in their division. >> people figured we'd lose 110, this has been satisfying. >> reporter: instead they finished first. if what general manager billy beane has done sounds like a hollywood story, well, it already was. >> the problem we're trying to solve is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams. then there's 50 feet of crap. and then there's us. >> reporter: brad pitt played

beane in "moneyball." based on a best-selling book it's a david-and-goliath tail with a g.m. with a small budget for salaries outthinking everyone else using a statistical formula to find winners. you have to find undervalued players. >> you essentially have to have players whose performance is better than what we're paying them. >> reporter: beane's calculations led the as to the >> reporter: beane's calculations led the as to the playoffs five times between 2000 and 2006. that made many teams in baseball rethink how to stock their rosters and begin copying the as blueprint. then the as went five straight seasons without a winning record. at any point in the last five years were you thinking to yourself "i may have lost my edge"? >> no. i think during the time period you're talking about people sort of wanted us to cry "uncle" like oh, you've got to change. >> reporter: he didn't change. he found no-names like johnny gomes and brandon moss. >> it's easy to buy a ferrari

and take it to a racetrack. >> would you agree with me there's not a lot of ferraris throughout? >> not many at all. >> lot of toyotas that just get good mileage. (laughter) >> reporter: the as won four times this year with a $55 million payroll. the yankees spend nearly $200 million and for all that money they got just one more win. billy beane is now living a real-life sequel. >> i don't remember the early years. those are great years that i have to go back and read about them because i was so intense during that period. i was young, very young myself. and i don't think i really appreciated that winning is really hard. >> reporter: this time around, billy beane is enjoying all the fun that comes with winning. the only thing better than a hollywood ending is when it's real life. jim axelrod, cbs news, detroit. >> pelley: and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night.

breaking news tonight at 7:00. a high school football player injured and rushed to the hospital. sky 9 out over poolsville in montgomery county. we are told the teenager was tackled and just may have suffered a spinal injury of some sort in practice. poolsville is preparing for its homecoming this coming weekend. searchers say the body of a missing virginia -- the woodson high teenager's car was found last week. >> a search team of concerned residents found the body just before 2:00 p.m. some of the searchers told me that it looks like an apparent suicidho